Authors: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Noelle Hanrahan (Editor), Alice Walker
ISBN-13: 9781583220221, ISBN-10: 1583220224
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Date Published: July 2003
Edition: BOOK & CD
These 50 writings by jailed journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal include several recent pieces on censorship, justice, and the meaning of constitutional rights in America. Also included are the banned essays from Mumia's controversial tenure as on-air columnist for All Things Considered, and those that aired on Democracy Now over Pacifica Radio. Also included is a one-hour CD of Mumia Abu-Jamal reading his on-air pieces written for All Things Considered and commentary from Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Adrienne Rich, Howard Zinn, and many others.
To some, Abu-Jamal, convicted in the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer, is a cold-blooded cop killer, but to his supporters, the death-row inmate is a hero, wrongly condemned by a racist system. In this collection of forceful prison essays and radio talks written over the last decade (a sequel to Live from Death Row and Death Blossoms), former Black Panther Abu-Jamal maintains that he was targeted by the state because of his political beliefs and associations. He cites a recent Amnesty International report that calls for a new trial on the grounds that his 1982 trial was riddled with procedural errors and quite possibly contaminated by racism. Hanrahan, director of Prison Radio (which aired several of these commentaries after Abu-Jamal was pulled off the air by NPR's All Things Considered), describes Abu-Jamal's life in solitary confinement as a living hell and accuses prison authorities of constant harassment and censorship. Whatever one thinks of Abu-Jamal's guilt or innocence, his attack on capital punishment as a discriminatory, racist practice is compelling, as is his critique of our bloated prison system, which, according to an American Bar Association report cited here, is self-defeating because dehumanizing conditions produce more criminals. An outspoken political analyst, Abu-Jamal condemns Clinton's adoption of NAFTA, calls the war on drugs largely a "War on Blacks" and offers incisive commentary on rap music, the decline of African-American community life, police brutality and recent developments in Mexico, Peru, Iran and South Africa. (May) FYI: A CD accompanies the book, featuring Abu-Jamal's radio essays plus comments from Alice Walker, Cornel West, Martin Sheen, John Edgar Wideman and others. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
Acknowledgments | 12 | |
Foreword | 15 | |
Introduction: Lethal Censorship | 21 | |
Scenes | ||
From an Echo in Darkness, a Step into Light: NPR Censored | 34 | |
The Sense of Censory | 49 | |
Another Write-Up ... for Rapping! | 51 | |
A Bright, Shining Hell | 55 | |
No Law, No Rights | 57 | |
A Letter from Prison | 59 | |
The Visit | 61 | |
Black August | 63 | |
A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire | 66 | |
Meeting with a Killer | 69 | |
Manny's Attempted Murder | 71 | |
Days of Pain, Night of Death | 73 | |
An Uncivil Action | 76 | |
Perspectives | ||
Mother Loss and Father Hunger | 96 | |
Musings on "Mo" and Marshall | 100 | |
Philly Daze | 103 | |
Words from an Outcast from the Fourth Estate | 105 | |
Deadly Drug Raid | 118 | |
First Amendment Rites | 120 | |
A Rap Thing | 124 | |
PEN Award Acceptance Speech | 126 | |
Absence of Power | 128 | |
A Crisis in Black Leadership | 130 | |
Liberty Denied in Its Cradle | 132 | |
Slavery Daze II | 135 | |
Memories of Huey | 137 | |
To War! For Empire! | 140 | |
Capture Him, Beat Him, and Treat Him Like Dirt | 142 | |
The Lost Generation? | 144 | |
May 13 Remembered | 146 | |
And They Call MOVE "Terrorists"! | 150 | |
Justice Denied | 153 | |
Justice for Geronimo Stolen by Star Chamber | 157 | |
Eddie Hatcher Fights for His Life! | 160 | |
Seeds of Wisdom | 162 | |
Sweet Roxanne | 164 | |
A House is Not a Home | 166 | |
Men of Cloth | 168 | |
Prisons vs. Preschools | 171 | |
Raised Hope, Fallen Disappointment | 173 | |
With Malice toward Many | 175 | |
Legalized Cop Violence | 177 | |
A Drug that Ain't a Drug | 180 | |
How, Now, Mad Cow? | 182 | |
Essays on Justice | ||
De Profundis | 194 | |
Five Hundred Years: Celebrations or Demonstrations? | 196 | |
The Illusion of "Democracy" | 198 | |
A Nation in Chains | 200 | |
Live from Death Row | 202 | |
War on the Poor | 205 | |
Why a War on the Poor? | 207 | |
The Death Game | 209 | |
Black March to Death Row | 213 | |
On Death Row, Fade to Black | 215 | |
Fred Hampton Remembered | 219 | |
"Law" That Switches from Case to Case | 221 | |
Two Blacks, Two Georgians | 223 | |
Cancellation of the Constitution | 225 | |
L. A. Outlaw | 227 | |
Media is the Mirage | 229 | |
True African-American History | 231 | |
When Ineffective Means Effective | 233 | |
Death: The Poor's Prerogative? | 235 | |
Legalized Crime | 237 | |
Campaign of Repression: Attack on the Life of the Mind | 239 | |
Musings on Malcolm | 242 | |
In Defense of Empire | 244 | |
Build a Better Mousetrap | 246 | |
Haitians Need Not Apply | 248 | |
Rostock, Germany, and Anti-Immigrant Violence | 250 | |
NAFTA: A Pact Made in Hell | 252 | |
Fujimori Bans in Bar in Peru | 254 | |
South Africa | 256 | |
Warlust - Again! (Iraq II) | 258 | |
What, to a Prisoner, is the Fourth of July? | 260 | |
A Death Row Remembrance of the Rosenbergs - Never Again? | 262 | |
Expert Witness from Hell | 264 | |
Zapatista Dreams | 266 | |
What Made the Acteal Massacre Possible?? | 269 | |
New Essays | ||
Father's Love: Father's Loss | 272 | |
Brahin: Reporter of the First Order | 275 | |
The Liebman Report: Broken Death Machines | 277 | |
Snatch and Grab in Central Park | 279 | |
Another Law - Another Country | 281 | |
Another Philadelphia Story: Cops Wilding | 284 | |
Killing Kids: Shaka and International Law | 286 | |
Echoes of Osage | 288 | |
Defense Lawyer for the Prosecution | 290 | |
WBAI: The Coup on Wall Street | 292 | |
Teaching Oppression | 294 | |
Speech to the Antioch College Graduating Class: April 29, 2000 | 297 | |
Outside Agitators | 300 | |
Conversation Between Mumia and Noelle Hanrahan minutes after the 1995 Death Warrant was read to Mumia in his cell | 303 | |
Notes on the composition and recording of the texts | 311 | |
The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal | 320 | |
About the Authors | 332 | |
Credits | 335 |